Presentations & Speeches

101 Items

Presentation - Union of Concerned Scientists

Hypersonic Hype and the Ethics of Emerging Weapons Technology

| Dec. 17, 2020

Hypersonic missiles have been receiving a lot of attention lately, but do they deserve the hype? And what kind of implications do these nuclear advancements have for equity and justice? The Union of Concerned Scientists hosted a conversation featuring Dr. Cameron Tracy, Kendall Fellow for the Global Security program at UCS, and Dr. Aditi Verma, Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom and the International Security Program to answer these questions.

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Presentation - Foundation for Defense of Democracies

State of Play and Future of the Multilateral Non-proliferation Regimes and Initiatives

| May 29, 2017

The last couple of years have seen mixed progress in non-proliferation, arms control, and disarmament. On the positive side, we can applaud the Ministerial-level Nuclear Security conference in December 2016 and actions emanating from that.

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Presentation - Union of Concerned Scientists

Matthew Bunn: Insider Threats & the Challenge to High-Security Organizations

| Mar. 22, 2017

High-security organizations around the world face devastating threats from insiders—trusted employees with access to sensitive information, facilities, and materials. From Edward Snowden to the Fort Hood shooter to the theft of nuclear materials, the threat from insiders is on the front page and at the top of the policy agenda. The talk will outline key insights from the new book Insider Threats (https://www.belfercenter.org/publicat...), which was co-edited with Scott Sagan of Stanford University. The book offers detailed case studies of insider disasters across a range of different types of institutions, from biological research laboratories, to nuclear power plants, to the US Army. It also includes an unprecedented analysis of terrorist thinking about using insiders to get fissile material or sabotage nuclear facilities. The talk will discuss cognitive and organizational biases that lead organizations to downplay the insider threat, and “worst practices” from these past mistakes, offering lessons that will be valuable for any organization with high security and a lot to lose.
 

Vienna International Center

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Presentation

Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) - Verification Issues

| Mar. 02, 2017

The High Level Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty’s (FMCT) Expert Preparatory Group held an open-ended informal consultative meeting at the United Nations in New York on 2-3 March 2017. The purpose of the meeting was to engage all UN Member States to share their views through interactive discussions on the scope of a future treaty, its definitions, verification requirements, and associated legal and institutional arrangements. As the FMCT is still at the stage of a proposed agreement, the purpose of the consultative meeting is not to negotiate the Treaty but prepare the terrain on future negotiations. The Group, which submits its report to the UN General Assembly in 2018, draws from the Governmental Experts Group (GGE) Report of 2015, further details issues, and looks at various options, inter alia, on the definitions, scope, verification alternatives, and their implications. The GGE participants agree that the future FMCT needs to be internationally and effectively verifiable, and is an important step in nuclear disarmament. The GGE identified a number of key issues related to verification, which are being summarized in this presentation.

Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security–Strengthening the Global Nuclear Order

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Presentation

Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security–Strengthening the Global Nuclear Order

| December 7, 2016

As the IAEA Director General Emeritus, Hans Blix put it “A nuclear accident anywhere is an accident everywhere”. Fukushima revealed that no one state is immune from fallacies that resulted both before and after the nuclear accident. That will be also true with any nuclear terrorism event, which we have been spared thus far.

The Trilateral Initiative and Beyond

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Presentation

The Trilateral Initiative and Beyond

| November 29, 2016

Article VI of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) calls for “..... a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control”. Complete elimination of nuclear weapons by a state requires verification of the dismantlement of nuclear weapons and related manufacturing facilities, and to provide assurances that all fissile materials from weapons, materials designated for weapons use, its scrap and other wastes, are accounted for, and any remaining nuclear activities be introduced for civilian use.